


Quick Jaunts

by nocturneequuis



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 19:58:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18373046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nocturneequuis/pseuds/nocturneequuis
Summary: An anthology of ficlets/challenges/prompts covering the range of Doctor Who. Basically a miscellany/anything goes category of short one shots that have nowhere else to be.Feel free to leave your own prompts/challenges in the comments~!





	Quick Jaunts

prompt challenge: Harry & Sarah Jane and a Broken Lawnmower

* * *

 

     It was spring, a bright and blue a spring as he’d ever seen, and much welcome after the weeks of rain that had drenched everything quite thoroughly. Harry was sure that even the Brigadier would crack a smile on a day like this—especially if the Doctor was out of town. And he’d been out of town for quite a while now. Ah well, it wasn’t as if Harry was overly worried. The Doctor could get out of scrapes as easily as he could get in one. 

  
     Still, he thought, as he locked the car and headed toward the medical ward of UNIT HQ, life had become a bit humdrum of late. Barely a tentacled creature or odd happenstance to be seen, save for some reports of walking skeletons near Guadalajara, but that was hardly their business, was it? At least not yet. Wasn’t much he could do for them at any rate, he thought with a bit of a chuckle, wishing he had someone to explain it to. 

  
     It was then, halfway to the building, that he caught on the wind the sound of a familiar yet oddly curious buzzing. He at first thought to dismiss it, since if it was something significant, there would be soldiers aplenty on high alert. As it was, things seemed to be fairly quiet in the compound. The young man on patrol nearby, Cooper by name, a private young and fresh faced as could be—was clearly not worried. Harry nodded at his smart salute. 

     “Good morning, sir!” said Cooper. 

     “Good morning. Anything going on today?” 

     Private Cooper’s face got a narrow, near constipated look, as if he was trying hard to remember something crucial—or else was afraid of being tested.

     “Don’t think so, sir. Well there is the rumor about walking skeletons in Guadalajara, sir. Bit barmy if you ask me. Sir.” He added, a flush coming to his young cheeks. 

     “Carry on,” said Harry. No point in correcting him about the queerness that came in this line of work. He’d find out soon enough. Clearly though there was nothing puzzling the young man and yet, there was something going on that he couldn’t put a finger on. He checked his watch. He had another ten minutes or so to kill and nothing pressing to do today. He supposed there was no harm in going for a look-see. 

     He considered briefly leaving his briefcase in his office and then inspecting the commotion, but some part of him urged him onward. It was a feeling of almost apprehension, as if, if he took a second away he might miss this—whatever it was. Well, it couldn’t be too terribly diverting could it? And certainly no harm to the briefcase. Mind made up, he put a hand in his jacket pocket and followed the source of the mysterious buzzing. It seemed to be out in a nearby field they sometimes set up for target practice. It had seen the best of the rain, he thought. It had been dry enough that the ground was not a bit soggy and the grass, a bit unkempt, was peppered with wildflowers of all varieties. 

     Perhaps the buzzing was due to some giant bee, Harry thought, amused at this fancy. And then, after a fleck of black against the cheerful sky caught his attention, wondered if it was a fancy after all. He squinted at it, trying to discern its shape. Hardly bee like at all, actually. In fact it looked quite like a—

     “Harry!” a familiar voice hissed nearby. He glanced over to see Sarah Jane peeking up from over a little grass bunker. 

     “Hello, old girl!” he said, heartily pleased to see her. “Didn’t know you were back in town!” 

     “ _Geown_!” She whispered, or something like that. With the buzzing growing louder, it was a bit hard to hear. 

     “Pardon?” 

     “Get Down!” she fairly shrieked. 

     “Hm? _Egad_!” he flung himself face first to the ground as the lawnmower buzzed just over him, so close he could feel the wind from its blades. What in the world? Sarah yelped and he looked up just fast enough to see her duck back under the cover of the bunker as the lawnmower came awfully close to her own head. 

     “What in the--” Harry started.   
  
     “Shhhh!” She peeked out over again and gestured. “Come here.” \

      He debated walking, decided it might be better not to take that risk, and trench crawled his way over to her, feeling like he was back in basic training all over again. She breathed a sigh of relief as he came to the bunker, ducking into the little shallow pit there where he could spot the lawnmower once more, a black circling shape in the sky. 

     “Are you alright?” she said in a low voice. 

     “Just fine,” he said, matching her volume, just in case. “Same can’t be said for my trousers. I was getting used to not having grass stains on them.” 

     “Mm, better that than your head.” She smiled at him. “It is good to see you.” 

     “And you,” he added, squinting up into the sky once more. “So what is the Doctor up to?” Because this was his fault. Had to be. 

     “Nothing I don’t think,” she said. “In fact, he seemed as surprised as I was.” 

     “Shocking,” Harry said flatly, then hearing the buzzing closing in once more. “Mind your head!” The ducked and the lawnmower buzzed over them, sending goose prickles over his skin. 

     “Oh, I hate that thing,” she said, glowering at it. Then, shook her head. “It’s all a bit odd. It was fine just yesterday.” She settled herself on the edge of the bunker, her eyes narrowed in thought. “The Tardis was acting a bit janky…” 

     “Also not surprising.” 

     “Right?” she said with a smirk. “We were trying to get to Tripoli at first and ended up somewhere in 1986 and lawnmower just appeared. The Doctor muttered something about holes in the shielding. I don’t know. Anyway, what I do know is that we materialized around it and he wasn’t happy. You know how he gets.” 

     “Quite,” Harry said, watching the lawnmower circle once more, almost as if it was looking for something. Then:  “Here, you weren’t in Mexico were you?” 

     “What? No. Somewhere in the States I think. Rhode Island? Anyway, the Tardis was in a bit of a flux, he said. And we couldn’t stop so we took it with us right in the control room and ended up in the sixteen hundreds.” 

     “Tripoli?” 

     “Sapporo,” she said, giving him a dry look and Harry chuckled. 

     “Aim as brilliant as ever.” 

     “You’d better believe it,” she said, rolling her eyes. “So we went there, met a few people—talked down a giant squid from, well, doing giant squid things I suppose… and then went back in the Tardis where we got stuck for a bit. Or rather…” she pursed her lips. “One second it was 1623 and the next there was this great rattling and it was 1723. The Doctor said it was a sneeze, whatever that means. Anyway, everything seemed to be going fine after. We got off planet—and then that thing came to life and started chasing us around the control room so we had to make an emergency landing.”   
“

     Any idea why?” he asked, scanning the sky once more. The lawnmower seemed to have beaded onto something, or at least was lowering in ever narrowing circles. 

     “No idea,” Sarah Jane said. “I think—” 

     “What ho,” Harry said as he spotted a movement. “Hang on, old girl. I think there’s trouble.” 

     “Trouble?” She peered with him over the bunker and what he squinted at became clear. The end of a very long scarf behind held up by what appeared to be a stick, waving back and forth as if beckoning the lawnmower closer.

     “What is he doing?” Sarah Jane hissed. “I could kill him.” 

     “Being rather clever, I expect.” He wasn’t entirely sure. “Let’s watch,” he added, as he could feel her tense. Whatever the Doctor was doing, it would hardly help if they went tearing after to assist and got their own heads handed to them for their trouble. 

     “He better be,” she said. Harry hoped so too. He watched as the lawnmower approached tentatively, almost curiously. If it was a creature it would be sniffing right now, he supposed. Then the scarf dropped from the stick and it was thrown far off into the field, the lawnmower tearing off after it.   
The next instant the Doctor had bounded over his own bunker and was tearing off towards them, one hand clamping his hat to his head, the other busily looping the trailing ends of his scarf over his neck. The lawnmower sheered the stick in half, sending wood chips flying everywhere, with enough voracity to make Harry wince and then whipped around, heading at alarming speed right for their friend. 

     “Doctor!” Sarah Jane shouted. The Doctor glanced over his shoulder and then picked up speed, his wide eyes getting impossibly wider as he charged for them. He was almost there when his foot caught in a divot and down he went. Harry bolted out of the bunker, Sarah by his side, the lawnmower buzzing at them with amazing speed. He grabbed one hand and Sarah the other and somehow they managed to get him on his feet and the three of them scurried back in the bunker, which buckled unexpectedly at the lip and Harry’s world whirled blue and green and brown as they were all sent tumbling into the little ditch. He wheezed as his back hit hard against the ground and the Doctor hit hard against him. 

     “Sarah!” The Doctor said and suddenly her elbow was in his ribs as the Doctor hauled her back into their little space. The lawnmower roaring fiercely upward. Harry grunted and opened his eyes. But all he could see was a great deal of scarf. 

     “Sorry,” Sarah murmured and moved away, much to the relief of his ribs. Harry moved the scarf from his eyes and saw quite a bit of Doctor grinning down at him with his enormous teeth and eyes somehow brighter than the spring sky. 

     “Hello, Harry,” the Doctor said. “Hope you don’t mind me dropping in like this.” 

     “It is good to see you,” Harry said. And it was. “But it’s a bit difficult to breathe down here.” 

     “It’s going to be a lot more difficult to breathe if that thing figures out a back attack,” Sarah Jane said. 

     “Yes…” The Doctor said, clambering off him. Harry coughed and sat up, noticing his tie was askew now and his white dress shirt, well, wasn’t so white anymore. 

     “I had hoped the stick would gum up the works…” the Doctor said, rubbing a finger against his lips in thought. “It only seems to have made it cross.” He frowned almost comically as if mirroring the emotion. 

     “I bet whatever happened has something to do with that time jump,” Sarah Jane said. “It was fine ‘til then. Down!” 

     They all ducked as the thing made another pass, this one seeming even closer and sending the Doctor’s hat flying. He clicked his tongue in annoyance as they all watched it swoop back up to the sky. 

     “You might be right… I feel like I know this from somewhere…” the Doctor said, rubbing his fingers through his hair. Harry didn’t know any more than he did. This seemed far beyond his ken, even with all the things he’d seen at UNIT. 

     “I’ve heard some scientists in Japan are working on some sort of advanced artificial intelligence.” Which he doubted would ever really take off. And if it did, it would certainly not be in the way of flying lawnmowers from 1986. “But this seems almost alive, doesn’t it? It’s curious, aggressive… able to be fooled.” And not in the way a computer was. Not that he knew much about them other than they were mostly cut and dry numbers, not liable to be fooled by a tossed stick. 

     “Hmmm,” the Doctor said. “It could be…” 

     “Maybe we should offer a jelly baby and find out,” Harry said, teasing. Sarah Jane gave him a look. 

     “Let’s not,” she said. “We’ve already tried that twice.” 

     “Harry,” the Doctor said, distracting him from wondering what on Earth the Doctor had hoped to accomplish offering a jelly baby to a lawnmower. “Harry, what is that? Is that yours?” He pointed. 

     “What?” Harry followed the Doctor’s finger until he spotted his briefcase lying in the grass where he must of have dropped it. 

     “Oh, yes.” 

     “Have you had it for a while? Do you like it?” 

     “I suppose so,” Harry said, wondering where the Doctor was going with this. “Had it since I graduated anyway. Haven’t felt the need to replace it.” 

     “But do you like it, Harry,” the Doctor said, gripping his shoulder, his eyes wide and blue and alarming as if suddenly his answer was the most important in the universe. “Or rather, can you learn to like it if you don’t?” 

     “I rather enjoy its company actually,” Harry said, the words tumbling out of his mouth with very little interference from his brain. The Doctor gave him a wide, nearly startling, grin.   
     
      “Excellent. Distract it, would you?” 

     “What?” Harry heard himself say as Sarah said: 

     “What are you—Doctor!” But he was already out of the bunker and heading to where the briefcase lay. What in the world was he up to? 

     “Come on,” Sarah Jane said with a sigh. “Better do as he says.” And then: “Oi! Thing! Over here!” she bellowed, waving her arms. Harry could only copy her, especially as the lawnmower was making a beeline for the Doctor again. 

     “Yes, that’s right, you!” he said, getting out of the bunker itself. “Come and get us if you can!” 

     The lawnmower slowed, turned this way and that as if not sure which way it should head, motor murring uncertainly and almost endearingly, Harry thought with faint alarm. 

     “Come on! What are you afraid of?” Sarah Jane said. “Big old lawnmower like you!” 

     It scooted a little more toward the Doctor who had scooped up his briefcase. What was he planning to—

     “Your mother was a weed whacker!” Sarah Jane bellowed. 

     “I say,” Harry said. “No need to provoke it.” The lawnmower was already provoked though, roaring to life and starting toward them. They ran, tearing across the green as fast as they were able, the thing growling behind them. Harry did his best to keep up the breakneck pace while at the same time trying to guide Sarah Jane away from hidden ditches and divots, not wanting her to break her ankle. And faintly, wondering about his life. 

     “He is taking me to Cancun after this!” Sarah Jane said, blowing hard as they raced over the landscape. “I don’t care if I have to take over the blasted controls myself!” 

     “Pack it in a bit, old girl,” he said as best he could. “Save your strength.” She shut her mouth but gave him a good glare for it and he couldn’t really blame her as they had to take a sudden pivot and then flatten themselves to the ground as the lawnmower roared over them again. 

     “You alright?” Harry said, helping Sarah to her feet. She stood shakily, hair in her face, dirt smudged on her nose, breath coming in gasps as she pulled her hair back. 

     “Fine. Just fine let’s—” 

     “Hey! You big ugly thing over there,” the Doctor called, his voice rolling over the landscape. “Just what do you think you are? A big, loud, greasy lawnmower?” 

     “What is he doing?” Sarah Jane said, exasperated. 

     “No idea, but I expect he knows,” Harry said, and then hoped it was true as the lawnmower once more turned its, for lack of a better word, sights back on the Doctor. 

     “I hope he does,” Sarah Jane murmured. But for the moment all they could do was stand there as the lawnmower approached the Doctor who was now holding the briefcase. 

     “No one’s going to like you, I assure you. You’ll be locked up in some shed and completely forgotten about. Isn’t that right, Harry?” the Doctor called, not looking at him. Harry startled a bit, surprised to be addressed. 

     “Oh, absolutely. No use for a lawnmower here.” 

     “But this on the other hand, well…” the Doctor shook the briefcase almost fondly. “It seems like something like this would get a lot of attention. Going out and about. Visiting patients and whatnot. A briefcase could see the world. Isn’t that right, Harry?”

     “Perfectly right.” Though he was beginning to get a bit of a bad feeling about this—it was a feeling hard to maintain as the lawnmower floated to the ground and whirred curiously up to the Doctor, hesitating a moment as if it were a small animal and then coming within reaching distance. 

      “See?” the Doctor said, petting its flat top and crouching down to its level. “It’s just a little leather thing. Plenty of room for you. Plenty of mystery too.”   
Harry blinked as something happened. Or something seemed to happen. He couldn’t really tell. There was just a sort of feeling of something having changed though he didn’t see even a spark of light or bit of mist. The lawnmower seemed to relax, or maybe stiffen, the handle rocking back until it was lying flat in the grass, inert as a lawnmower should be. 

     “There you are,” the Doctor said, handing him his briefcase. “Take good care of her.” 

     “What?” Harry said. “Doctor I have no idea what just happened.”   
     

     “Well, to make a long story short, the Tardis sneezed and made a _tsukumogami_.” 

     “Oh!” Sarah said. “Like that odd umbrella?”   
       
     “Precisely,” the Doctor said, beaming. “More or less.”   
  
     “Wait is it?” Harry said again, feeling a bit hapless about it all. 

     “ _Tsukumogami_ ,” Sarah Jane said with a rather good pronunciation. “It’s Japanese folklore. Household objects that last a hundred years acquire a spirit.” 

     “In this case it’s a bit more of what you might call an energy sprite,” the Doctor said, tapping the side of his nose. “But you get the idea. “

     “And that’s… in here now…” Harry said, looking at his briefcase which didn’t seem much different than before. 

     “Yes, do take good care of it, will you?” the Doctor said, sounding earnest enough that Harry could only nod, even if he wasn’t entirely sure what he was getting into. The Doctor straightened, smiling, flipping the end of the scarf over his shoulder. “Anyway, we’re off to—” 

     “Cancun,” Sarah Jane said. 

     “—somewhere else now,” the Doctor said, as if he hadn’t heard her. “Care to come along?” 

     “No thank you,” Harry said, feeling still a bit dazed by it all but at least knowing that much. Oh, it wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy his time spent with the Doctor, but he had too much to do back here where he was needed. He simply couldn’t gallivant off whenever he pleased. 

     “Oh well, we’ll visit,” the Doctor said, unconvincingly. 

     “It was good to see you again, Harry,” Sarah Jane said, already looking like she wanted to follow along beside. He didn’t really blame her. “We should meet up sometime!” 

     “I would enjoy that.” And he would. Good old Sarah Jane. He’d missed her a bit. Missed them both if he were to be honest. Missed that life. But duty called and he was bound to answer it. Still, he watched them walk off. Watched the Doctor scoop up his hat and set it back on his head as they wandered into a knot of trees just off to the side of the shooting range. After a moment he heard the gasping wheezing noise of the Tardis taking off and then—

     Nothing. 

     Silence. 

     The wind stirred the grass around the lawnmower that looked dead to him.

     Somewhere a bird called and another answered and soon the trees and grounds were full of bird song. Life had returned to normal. Harry shook his head, briefly investigating his briefcase, though finding nothing even remotely different about it. Perhaps the _tsukumogami_ had actually left, he thought, a tug of sadness going through him for reasons he couldn’t explain. 

     “Well off you go,” he told himself. “You’ll be late.” 

     He decided to leave the lawnmower where it was for others to puzzle over and went in through the medical wing, only to nearly run into the Brigadier who was on his way out. 

     “Ah, there you are,” the Brigadier said. 

     “Good morning,” Harry said. “Sorry I was a bit late.” 

     “Never mind, I heard why,” the Brigadier said, a pinched look coming over his face. Harry wasn’t sure whether he heard the lawnmower or the Doctor or the Tardis and decided now was not a good time to ask. “Tell me he went off to Mexico.” 

     “I really have no idea,” Harry said, though he was bound to show up there if there was trouble. The Brigadier seemed to think that too, or at least nodded to himself. 

     “Anyway, I came to see you about the Bainbridge Report. Do you have it?” 

     “Oh, yes it’s…” Harry opened his briefcase and stared as a certain file folder came wriggling up higher than the rest. As if something was pushing it underneath. He took it out carefully and saw that it was, indeed, the Bainbridge Report. 

     How in the world… 

     The Brigadier cleared his throat and Harry saw the man was looking at him expectantly, eyebrows raised. 

     “Anything you’d like to tell me?” the Brigadier said. Harry thought of telling him. Knew in a way he should. But, then again, who knew what the Brigadier might be forced to do if he knew officially. 

     “Not a thing,” Harry said, offering him the folder with as bright a smile as he could manage. “Good morning!” 

     “Good morning,” the Brigadier said, giving him a look that meant that he knew that he was hiding something and knew that Harry knew he knew, and just so they both knew that the Brigadier was no fool, things could continue as normal. 

     After that exchange, the Brigadier nodded and left the building, the door opening to let in perfect spring air. 

     Harry went to his office, setting the briefcase on the desk and resting a hand on it. It seemed, maybe, if he closed his eyes, he could almost feel something. It might have been a fancy, and maybe it was. But the truth of the matter was that his briefcase was now alive, however that worked, and a part of him couldn’t help but be pleased.

     “Well then,” he said, opening it. “Let’s get started, shall we?”   
  
     And deep inside of him, an odd sensation prickled. Almost as if something had smiled.


End file.
